Just Starting Out
by emilyherondale
Summary: A superfamily au. Uncle Ben and Aunt May are killed, leaving Peter alone. Tony decides to step in.
1. Chapter 1

Steve had never had a phone in his bedroom. Before he'd been frozen in the ice, he'd only ever had one phone. He could never get used to the phone ringing so close to his bed. That's why, when the phone went off in the middle of the night, Steve was the one who woke up. Tony barely twitched.

He reached over for the phone, pulled it clumsily off the nightstand, and muttered a groggy hello.

"Captain Rogers?" Steve sat up. The voice of an officer made him snap to attention on instinct.

"Commander Fury. What's wrong? Did something happen?"

"Put Stark on the phone." Steve looked over at Tony, sleeping peacefully.

"He's asleep."

"Put the phone next to his ear." Steve sighed and rested the phone next to Tony's pillow. "STARK WAKE UP RIGHT NOW THAT'S AN ORDER YOU MOTHA- "

Tony shot straight up, sending the phone flying away as he swatted it off the pillow frantically. Steve grinned. Tony gave him an annoyed look, and retrieved the phone from the floor.

"What is it Fury? I was getting my beauty sleep," Tony teased.

"There's a bit of a situation. Do you know a Dr. Richard Parker? Works for Oscorp? He and his wife just went missing. Their house has been ransacked."

"Parker was at the forefront of cross-genetic manipulation, I've only heard of him. Any idea who he's running from?"

"Not a clue. But I was hoping you could help us search his office, maybe find some genius-type documents that he left behind. Figure out what he was doing."

"I'm on it." Tony disconnected the call and tossed the phone to the end of the bed. "You wanna come with, Steve? I'm being exploited for my genius again. It'll be funnnn."

Steve laughed and slid out of bed, "Somehow I think I might be the only one who actually exploits you for _real_ fun." Tony stuck his tongue out at Steve mockingly and rolled out of bed lazily. He walked over to Steve and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"Wouldn't have it any other way, Cap."

The small home in the suburbs of New York looked so normal from the outside. The inside however, told a different story. The closets were thrown open and clothes that hadn't fit in suitcases were tossed on the floor. Dr. Parker's office had papers covering the floor and a laptop charger still plugged into the wall, the laptop nowhere in sight. Steve looked around sadly. He crouched down and picked up a broken picture frame from the floor. The glass was shattered, but the picture was intact. It was a family photo. Dr. Parker, his wife, and a little newborn baby, still in the blanket from the hospital.

"They had a kid."

Tony look up from the papers in his hand, "Yeah, Peter, I think. His parents left him with his aunt and uncle."

Steve put the frame down, "It's so sad. That they had to leave him behind. Poor kid."

Tony nodded absently and flipped through more papers. He opened the filing cabinet and frowned. "The files are empty. Parker must've taken them with him. Or someone else got to them first."

"Did Fury send you the damage report?"

"Yeah, lemme pull it up," Tony pulled out his phone and opened the file. His frown deepened as he scrolled through it. "Hey you know how I said the kid was left with his aunt and uncle?" Steve nodded. "Well Fury sent me the uncle's statement. He said Parker showed up without explanation. Left the kid _and a briefcase_ .Told him to keep it safe_._"

"Looks like we should check it out."

Tony scrolled down a few more pages, "Too late. Just got another message. Someone broke into the house and killed Dr. Parker's brother and his wife. Probably took the case too."

Steve swore under his breath, but then looked up with a hint of worry. "What happened to the baby?"

"Found him in one of the rooms. I gotta go, Fury wants me to report to S.H.I.E.L.D. and go over what's here. I'll have a driver come pick you up. You should go home, Cap. Get some sleep."

"Sure, sure." Steve kissed Tony goodbye and waited for him to leave the room. He leaned over and picked up the photo of the Parkers and their baby, slid it in his coat pocket, and went to wait for the driver.

Tony got back to Stark Tower expecting to find Steve asleep or in the gym. But as far as he could tell, Steve never got home.

"JARVIS? Any idea where Steve is?"

"No, Mr. Stark. His driver arrived home without him. Would you like me to patch you through to him?"

"Cap doesn't know how to work his cell phone… I might as well have given him a paperweight for Christmas. Call the driver for me."

"Right away, Mr. Stark."

…

"Hello, Mr. Stark. Will you be needing a ride somewhere?"

"Nah, just tell me where you took Steve."

"Oh, he had me call Commander Fury and ask about someone named Peter Parker. And then I dropped him off at the Children's Hospital."

"You know what? I think I will be needing a ride."

Tony found Steve alone in a hospital room set up for a baby. He was sitting on the armchair next to the crib, back facing the door, and cradling a little boy.

"You scared me, Steve. Thought I was gonna meet you at home."

Steve turned around slowly and put a finger to his lips, "Shh, he's sleeping. And sorry about that. I just… thought it was sad. The poor kid was alone. His parents are missing, his aunt and uncle are dead. And he has no idea. No idea that he's all alone." Steve knew how that felt to be alone, with no family, no one who knew you and it just hurt to think that such an innocent child would ever have to live through that. "Nobody should be alone."

Tony frowned and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. He could tell that Steve wasn't talking about the baby anymore. "You aren't alone, Cap. You'll always have me."

Steve smiled slightly. "But who does he have? This poor guy he doesn't have anyone." Tony looked down at Peter and stroked his little hand with his index finger. Peter yawned, wrapped his hand around Tony's finger and squeezed before drifting back into sleep. Tony smiled.

"He has me. Just like you."

Steve looked shocked. "What?"

Tony used his free hand to pull out his cell and call Fury. "Hey, you know the Parker kid? Don't hand his file over to social services. Send it straight to my lawyer. He's coming home with me." Tony smiled as Steve's eyes lit up. _Are you serious? _he mouthed. Tony grinned. "Oh yeah, Fury, call the hospital as soon as I hang up, I don't want them to think I'm stealing the kid or anything." He ended the call and slid the phone back in his pocket. Steve looked up at him with thrilled surprise.

"Tony, what are you doing?"

"I'm starting a family."


	2. Chapter 2

After half an hour of impatiently explaining to the hospital staff that they were not trying to kidnap the baby, Tony and Steve walked out to a waiting car with Peter strapped into a car seat someone had left unattended in the children's ward. Perhaps stealing the car seat was a bad move, but at least they hadn't stolen the baby, right?

Tony opened the car door for Steve who carefully slid inside, hoping that if he moved slowly enough, he wouldn't wake up Peter. He set the car seat down on the seat next to him and then stared at it blankly.

"Tony? Isn't this thing supposed to strap down?"

"Yeah, here let me show you." Tony got in on the other side of the car seat and leaned over it quizzically. "Well, I think it has something to do with the seatbelt…" Tony pulled the seatbelt around the car seat like he was strapping in a person. He and Steve looked at it for about 10 seconds before Steve shook his head.

"I don't think that's right. Shouldn't you know how to hook in a car seat?"

"Shouldn't you?"

"When I grew up, car seats didn't exist. I came home from the hospital on my mother's lap."

"So you're saying we should just hold him?"

Steve stared at Tony, completely horrified, "What if we crash?"

"Oh c'mon! Your arms are definitely stronger than a car seat."

"No, Tony."

"Um, excuse me? Mr. Stark?" The driver had gotten out from behind the wheel and was now standing at the side of the car, looking in at the bickering heroes. He gestured at the baby. "May I?"

Tony looked at Steve and shrugged, so Steve got out of the car and let the driver attempt the complexities of the car seat. He finished in about 5 seconds.

"There we are. Ready for the road." He got back into to seat and turned to look at Tony in back. "Where to?"

"Woah, woah, woah. Hold up. How'd you do that?" Tony pointed his finger at the car seat the way you'd point at a dog that could bite any second. Steve sat next to the seat staring in awe.

The driver laughed. "I'll show you later, boss. Where are we going?"

"Stark Tower."

The engine began to purr and the car started up. And somehow, despite having slept through the saga of the car seat, the faint noise of the engine jolted Peter awake.

"Well shit." Tony muttered

From the front of the car, the driver laughed. "Welcome to parenthood."

Steve stood awkwardly in the center of the main living room in Stark Tower. He looked around and then looked down at the baby carrier. He brushed several beer cans aside and set it down on the table carefully.

"Uh…Tony? We have a problem."

"What? Already?" Tony rushed over to the table and looked down at Peter, "I don't see a problem."

"Tony, he's sleeping in his car seat on a table next to some beer cans. Where are we gonna put him?"

Tony lifted his finger, an idea crossing his mind, and then almost instantly dropped it with a frown. "That, Cap, is an excellent question."

After 5 minutes of the two of them staring blankly at the baby, Tony smiled. "Wait here, be back in an hour." Tony ran out of the room and flung the door shut behind. Peter started to cry.

"Dammit Tony," Steve sighed. He sat down on the couch and picked Peter up to rock him back to sleep.

Just as Steve had lulled Peter to sleep, Tony rushed back into the room. Steve shot him an angry look as he put one finger to his lip and whispered, "If you wake him up, I will murder you."

Tony smiled and gestured for Steve to follow him. He picked Peter up out of the car seat and followed his now sawdust-covered husband out of the room.

Tony brought them to one of the rooms previously used to store old paintings that he no longer wanted. The paintings were still there, but now, in the middle of the room, was a crib. The "crib" was part metal, part wood, with several band tees lining the bottom as blankets.

"I know it looks like crap but I figured he just needs to sleep in it for a few days until we get a better one."

"Tony, it's beautiful." Steve carefully lay Peter down on a Black Sabbath tee and smiled. He put one arm around Tony and kissed the top of his head. "Welcome home, Peter."

When he was 3 years old, Peter got his first bed. Tony had a blanket made from the band tees that he'd slept on for his first 3 years. The metal and wood crib stayed in his room as a toy bin for the next seven years.

And then it became a tool box.

They never did get rid of it.


End file.
